Spiced Chocolate Molasses Cookies

Spiced Chocolate Molasses Cookies - a chocolate cookie spiced with cinnamon, ginger, and allspice, and filled with a dark chocolate and molasses ganache. 

This post is sponsored in conjunction with Christmas Cookies Week. I received product samples from sponsor companies to aid in the creation of the Christmas Cookies Week recipes. All opinions are mine alone.

These spiced chocolate molasses cookies will please both the chocolate lover and the spicy Christmas cookie lover in your life. These cookies are fabulous for a Christmas cookie platter or cookie exchange.

If you, like me, have trouble making pretty cookies, you will love these. They will make you feel like a professional. 

These cookies have two kinds of natural sugar, dark muscovado for the dough and turbinado for coating the cookies. Of course, if you don't want to hunt down the special sugars, you can easily substitute dark brown sugar for the muscovado and sparkling or granulated sugar for the turbinado.

Here's the trick to creating the indentation in the cookie for the ganache:

You bake the cookies for ten minutes, remove them from the oven while they are still soft, and then press the middles down with a round measuring spoon (my half teaspoon one worked perfectly). Then you bake the cookies for an additional five minutes, until set. 

Just pipe in the ganache after the cookies have cooled. 

For the vanilla in these cookies (because vanilla makes everything better), I used Adams Best "Twice as Strong" Vanilla. You can read more about Adams Extracts in Prize Package #1 below.

I was really happy with how these cookies turned out, and so were all of my taste testers!

Where do I buy the sugars and the molasses?

These days, a well stocked supermarket will usually have most of the ingredients. I found the turbinado sugar and molasses at Ralph's (Kroger). I've heard that the molasses can also be found at health food stores. 

I ended up buying the dark muscovado sugar at Amazon. You can always substitute dark brown sugar. 

Welcome to Christmas Cookie Week, hosted by Ellen at Family Around the Table and Christie at A Kitchen Hoor’s Adventures, where 35 bloggers share cookie recipes all week long.

#ChristmasCookiesWeek Monday Recipes

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• White Chocolate Gingerbread Blondies by The Redhead Baker
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Check out the fun prize packages you can win by entering the Rafflecopter giveaway. 

Prize Package #1:

From Adams Extracts comes a selection of baking delights including their prize-winning pound cake mix, pure vanilla extract, pure peppermint extract, double strength pure vanilla extract, pound cake flavor extract and vanilla cinnamon sugar.   Adams traces its beginnings back to Battle Creek, Michigan, when John A. Adams began making and selling his Green Plant Sarsaparilla extract, Adamur, in 1888. In 1905, he moved his family to Beeville, TX. At the time, most vanilla was sold to pharmacies and was often labeled “Do not bake or freeze.” John A. Adams, whose imagination was stirred by his wife’s yearning for a flavoring that wouldn’t bake or freeze out, announced that he could produce a better vanilla than the one his wife was currently using. Working with just $6.71 worth of materials on top of an old icebox, John A. Adams discovered the formula he wanted.  

Prize Package #2:

YumGoggle is giving away a variety of holiday and Christmas cookie cutters. The winner of this prize package will receive a sleigh, large ornament and two cookie cutter sets. The first is a mug/ sweater set called Ugly Sweater Specialty Cookie Cutter Set and the second is a Santa/ reindeer set called North Pole Specialty Cookie Cutter Set. Each set includes 2 cookie cutters, 2 templates, 2 instruction cars and 4 bonus templates. The YumGoggle gallery features food photography from contributors around the world. If you’re looking for a recipe, chances are you’ll find it on YumGoggle. The photos not only whet your appetite but you can easily find the recipes by clicking the photo.  

Prize Package #3:

The winner of this Sprinkle Pop prize package will get their choice of 3 sprinkle varieties, at $35.00 value. Winner will be contacted by or need to contact Sprinkle Pop for fulfillment. Sprinkle Pop offers trendy sprinkle mixes that you won’t find anywhere else. Fun fact: Over 50% of their sprinkle mixes are dyed in house, making each experience one of a kind. Sprinkle Pop also creates one of a kind confetti shapes that are unique to their mixes. Make every occasion a festive one with these fun sprinkle creations. 

Prize Package #4:

One winner will receive an 11 5/8 inch x 16 1/2 inch Silpat® baking mat which is perfect for all of your cookie baking throughout the year. Reduces the need for parchment and is reusable. The original silicone baking mat made from a dedicated silicone with reinforced fiberglass mesh. Nothing sticks to Silpat® which means you’ll spend less time cleaning and more time enjoying your baking creations. Silpat® replaces the need for butter, grease, oils, and sprays.

• Multi-purpose non-stick silicone baking and pastry mat.
• No cooking sprays, oils or parchment paper needed.
• Not to be used as a cutting surface.
• Can be used in the oven, microwave and freezer.

  a Rafflecopter giveaway

cookies, chocolate, cinnamon, Christmas

Cookies, dessert, Christmas

American

Yield: 48 cookiesAuthor: Karen Kerr

Spiced Chocolate Molasses Cookies

ingredients

Dough

• 1 1/2 cups plus 2 tablespoons (6 7/8 ounces) unbleached all purpose flour
• 6 tablespoons (1 1/4 ounces) unsweetened natural cocoa powder
• 3/4 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt (or table salt)
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/8 teaspoon ground allspice
• 10 tablespoons (5 ounces) unsalted room temperature butter
• 1/2 cup (4 ounces) packed dark muscovado or dark brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 large egg
• 1/4 cup (3 ounces) unsulphured molasses
• 1/2 cup turbinado sugar for coating the cookies

Filling

• 1/3 cup (2 ounces) chopped bittersweet chocolate (60 to 70 percent cacao)
• 2 tablespoons (1 ounce) salted butter, diced
• 1/2 teaspoon unsulphured molasses

instructions

To Make the Dough

1. Mix the flour, cocoa, cinnamon, baking soda, salt, ginger, and allspice together and then run them through a fine mesh sieve into a medium bowl. 
2. In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat the butter, muscovado sugar, and vanilla on medium high until light and fluffy. Beat in the egg until it's been absorbed. Beat in the molasses. 
3. Stir in the dry ingredients and then mix on low until blended. Scrape the bowl and mix for another 30 seconds. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate the dough for two hours. 
4. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and line two baking sheets with parchment paper. 
5. Fill a small bowl with the turbinado sugar. Measure the dough with a  tablespoon and shape each piece into a ball. Roll each ball in the turbinado sugar and place on the baking sheet, about 2 inches apart. 
6. Bake the cookies, one sheet at a time, on the center rack of the oven. See the next instruction regarding adding the indentation for the ganache. 
7. Bake the cookies for 10 minutes, remove the pan from the oven, and then immediately make a deep indentation in the middle of the cookie. I used a round measuring spoon. Return the cookies to the oven and bake for an additional five minutes. Cool the cookies on the pans on wire racks. 

To Make the Filling

1. In a heatproof bowl, add the chocolate and butter. Cook in the microwave in 15 second bursts, stirring in between. Add the molasses and stir. 
2. Place the ganache in a small zip-lock sandwich bag and seal. Snip a tiny hole in one corner and pipe the ganache into the centers of each cookie. 
3. Let the ganache harden at room temperature before serving. 

https://www.karenskitchenstories.com/2018/12/spiced-chocolate-molasses-cookies.html

Karen's Kitchen Stories

Recipe adapted from Epicurious - from the book Real Sweet: More Than 80 Crave-Worthy Treats Made with Natural Sugars

Disclaimer: Thank you #ChristmasCookiesWeek sponsors: Adams Extract, Sprinkle Pop, YumGoggle and Silpat for providing the prizes free of charge. The #ChristmasCookiesWeek giveaway is open to U.S. residents, age 18 & up. All entries for the winner will be checked and verified. By entering you give the right to use your name and likeness. The number of entries received determines the odds of winning. Four (4) winners will be selected at random from entries received. The prize packages will be fulfilled by and sent directly from the giveaway sponsors. #ChristmasCookiesWeek bloggers are not responsible for the fulfillment or delivery of the prize packages. Bloggers hosting this giveaway and their immediate family members in their household are not eligible to enter or win the giveaway. No purchase necessary. Void where prohibited by law. This promotion is in no way sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or associated with Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter or any other social channel mentioned in the #ChristmasCookiesWeek posts or entry.